Reviews of Prog Rock, Classical Music, Art Rock and Jazz
**** Achingly beautiful music in troubled times In those distant days before the world was gripped by the hands of a virus that forced us all into lockdown, I was on my way back home on a train from London. I was doing some research on my laptop into the Prog Rock band Porcupine Tree …
Continue reading "All That I Am and All That I Was by Ms Amy Birks – Album Review"
John Wetton, Bill Bruford and Robert Fripp Part III of How I learned to listen to King Crimson King Crimson's 1974 album Red is a challenging listen, partly because it refuses to be categorised. It's progressive rock, heavy rock, proto-metal, jazz, contemporary classical, full of terrible beauty and actual beauty. The musicianship is of the …
Continue reading "Red (1974) by King Crimson – Album Review"
Celebrating 20 Years of Scenes from a Memory Dream Theater SEC Armadillo, Glasgow Sunday 23 February 2020 A stunning stage show with virtuosic guitar playing **** The Armadillo in Glasgow somehow seemed appropriate for a stage set that began with futuristic images of robots on the big screen, revealing some of their innards just as …
Part II of How I learned to listen to King Crimson My own response to King Crimson is one of quiet terror Robert Fripp, Die Zeit, May 1995 In King Crimson...there was always a call for a sense of a threat of impending doom. Bill Bruford, Auditory Illusions, BBC Radio 4 2019 In 2019, I heard that King Crimson …
Continue reading "Thrak (1995) by King Crimson – Album Review"
A huge compression of grinding guitar riffs and stupefying bass, only upstaged on occasion by drumming that reminds me of the time my pet frog was squashed by seven falling refrigerators. Paul Ferguson, Amazon Review of Thrak by King Crimson, February 2003 I hope Paul’s frog survived. In case you are wondering whether Paul liked the album, …